Ipi (aka Yervoy) #1 in the books...

Today has been a LONG day! I was up around 5am to make sure I got the dogs out and head in to the city for my 7am appointment.

Walking to the path the sun was barely coming up over the city:

I got to sloan a little after 7am. Was taken back for blood work pretty quickly (after the admin gals were able to make sure they were getting my pre-surgical testing blood work along with my chemo bloodwork all drawn at once). It was pretty chilly in the waiting and area and since I was having treatment they had to do a blood draw from my hand. Ouch! They also had to warm my hand up first to get a vein to pop up so they could draw it. Then they proceeded to take about 6 vials.

Ater that it was back to the waiting room. I was supposed to have treatment at 8. I think I got called back around 10. Then there was a little mishap where the labs didn't run all the blood tests they needed so I had to wait longer for those to be completed.

Yervoy (Ipi) is a drip that is given over 90 minutes. From the picture below it's the TINY little bag at the top of the IV pole. It ran thru a machine and diluted with saline. It's amazing how MUCH that TINY little bag of medicine costs!

I finished the drug around 12:45. While I waited for it to run I watched some TV, they ordered me a sandwich and I listened to the man next to me snore the whole time. Wish it was so easy for me to fall asleep! Since it was my first infusion I also had to wait around an hour for observation.

my view from the chemo suite

After the hour wait I headed up to the 7th floor for pre-surgical testing. At this point it was almost 2pm. I was supposed to be there at 10:45 am. They were able to work me fairly easily. I was taken back and given an EKG. Then the tech tried to draw blood and I said - WAIT! I've already been stuck twice and was told they got all they needed this morning. I think if they had stuck me a 3rd time today I might have started to cry!

Luckily they did get all the needed that morning. Then another woman came in to talk about my EKG. Guess on 9/11 mine was abnormal. (Remember that was the morning after my horrific night of watching my dog get run over by a car! BTW Dublin is doing great!). But luckily today my EKG was normal! Phew cuz I don't know if I could take adding on appointments to see a cardiologist!

So I am in need of SLEEP! I'll post tomorrow more about Ipi/Yervoy and how it works and what to expect while on it.